Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Wiles, Kincaid See Commies

It’s Halloween time, so it’s the perfect time for spooky stories about evil spirits and people who are here to destroy us. Of course, every day is Halloween for wingnuts, with Obama being the scariest goblin of all. Cliff Kincaid joined Rick Wiles’ radio show as they told tall tales of communists under every bed.

Kincaid: He’s probably even more openly Communist, more of a radical than Obama himself.

Wiles: That’s hard to believe. What we have now is that the present day Democratic Party is the Communist Party, I really believe it. The Communists decided decades ago, they realized they’re never going to be elected in this country as Communists, they infiltrated the Democratic Party and over decades they took it over. Now, we’ve got people openly running as Communists, they don’t deny their Communist sympathies and nobody is blinking an eye about it, it’s quite normal now.

Kincaid: This is the case, certainly in the case of de Blasio. This guy’s more open than anybody…

Kincaid: This is the city of 9/11 and [blogger] Trevor Loudon says what’s happening to New York City with this candidate is the perfect storm. We’ve got the Communists coming together, personified by de Blasio’s past, present and future, and you have the Muslims in alliance with him. Together, this is the critical thing, in dismantling the NYPD’s counterterrorism programs and decimating its intelligence bureau, you are setting the city up, and the nation, for another 9/11.

Wiles: And in the White House is the perfect political hybrid, a Marxist Muslim who is in the White House right now and is orchestrating this alliance to dismantle the United States of America.

Now say your prayers, boys and girls, or those scary communists will come out of your closet and eat you!

Comments

Seriously, have none of them ever looked up the word, and tried to understand what it means? There is nothing Obama has done which could be considered remotely communist, except perhaps taking over some companies (but then he ought to take over all the companies, and hand them over to the workers).

Also, have anyone explained to the morons that the Cold War is over and that there is no big Communist enemy?

Name one.
Now before you start a few definitional points:
1. By openly I mean openly, that is the person concerned must have actually said in public some variation of “I am a Communist” or “I support communism”.
2. By running I mean having publicly declared that they are seeking an elected office.
3. Since Kincaid appears to be talking about the US I’m going to limit this to people seeking office in that country.

You’ll find them listed on the ballot right after Lyndon Larouche. I frequently see their supporters with a booth outside the public market (again, usually right next to the Larouche table.) They are usually lucky to get one thousandth of a percentage of the vote.

But somehow I don’t think these real communists are the communists Mr. Kincaid is talking about.

Wow, that’s really fucking stupid. Can these guys actually feed themselves, or do they require permanent care, and wear helmets to keep from bashing their heads against the wall? Obama is so far from being a communist, he can’t even see communism from his porch. He’s not even a socialist, let alone particularly liberal. How disconnected from reality do you have to be to believe this crap?

As I said on another blog site I think I’ve met more albinos then actual bona fide communists. To the best of my knowledge I’ve only met one true Marxist and he was one of my college professors in the 70s. I’m a college professor myself, and have spent most of my adult life in academia, so I ought to be surrounded by communists, according to people like this, but I don’t know a single one.

I’ll grant you academics tend to be more liberal than the average Joe but it’s by no means universal. Iin the lot where I park there are several cars with Romney bumper stickers from the last election, or conservative slogans, and none of us liberals has keyed them or put nasty notes under the windshield wiper.

There is a municipality election coming up in Denmark, and there are plenty of communists running here, some as part of Enhedslisten, which is a national party, and which keeps the current government in power, and some in local Communist parties.

I’ll grant you academics tend to be more liberal than the average Joe but it’s by no means universal. Iin the lot where I park there are several cars with Romney bumper stickers from the last election, or conservative slogans, and none of us liberals has keyed them or put nasty notes under the windshield wiper.

It is clear that you are failing in your duties as part of the evil liberal conspiracy. Please report immediately to your local FEMA concentration camp and take your place using those billions of rounds of ammunition on Christians.

This has got me curious about any “open” communists running in recent elections. I can’t recall any, and Wikipedia’s list of independent and third-party candidates for the 2012 presidential election doesn’t list any party with “communist” in its name. This list includes 3 presidential candidates, Gus Hall being the latest (he died in 2000.)

Angela Davis and Jarvis Tyner are still around, but getting too old for candidacy, and more likely recognize the futility of running as communists.

So as far as I can discover, Gus Hall’s run in 1984 (his fourth) was the last time a communist ran for a major office.

This has got me curious about any “open” communists running in recent elections. I can’t recall any, and Wikipedia’s list of independent and third-party candidates for the 2012 presidential election doesn’t list any party with “communist” in its name.

Keep in mind, he’s claiming that Democrats are openly running as communists, not merely that there are obscure communist candidates. So it’s just that much more ridiculous. Either he doesn’t understand the definition of “openly”, or he’s living in a complete fantasy world. Or both.

I think I tracked this down and it is classic guilt by association.
-The KGB who were communist gave some support to the Sandanistas in Nicaragua, who were actually social democrats not communists but who care about facts?
-The Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York helped distribute medicine in Nicaragua during Sandanista rule.
-Communist cooties were transferred from the KGB to the Nicaraguan government and then to Bill de Blasio who carried them into the Democratic party.
-???
-PROFIT!